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Focus Stacking
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"Focus stacking" is the process of compositing multiple images exposed at different foci to create a single image with extended depth of field.
It's an especially useful technique for those working in microphotography and macrophotography where depth of field is normally very limited.
Focus stacking can be accomplished in Photoshop with some effort or easily with the free program CombineZ5 by Alan Hadley. The user interface for CombineZ5 is not commercial quality but if you read a few pages of instructions you can get very good results very quickly.
I'm delighted to discover this program and would love to see what others are doing with it.
Posted at 5:02PM, 4 April 2006 PDT
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So, we have HDR to extend tonal range and focus stacking to extend depth of field, what next?
Posted 75 months ago.
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check out www.flickr.com/photos/lordv, a master of focus stacking.
and bugs ;)
Posted 75 months ago.
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I was looking at his stuff today, I had no idea how he pulled that stuff off.
Thanks for the link and the info!
Posted 75 months ago.
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damn doesn't seem mac compatible
Posted 75 months ago.
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What next?
What about sensors able to offer a much wider dynamic range (say 16bits or more from the sensor instead of 12bit).
Or that rather neat trick with range sensors at each pixel that enable the decision of DOF and focal point to be made in post-processing... Now where is that old slashdot link. Yeah yeah it was ridiculously pricey and had a very limited resolution... Hey it'll get better.
I'm surprised with the populariity of HDR that canon didn't enable wider exposure bracketting in the 30d and support 5, 7 or 9 images instead of just the 3. Oh well, maybe in a firmware update.
Posted 75 months ago.
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in the Macro Viewer group, lord v notes a mac version here which is not shareware.
Bugs really aren't all that hard to do with the right equipment, patience and fascinating insects... all of which he has. He's retired and shoots with this often supported by a bean pole.
With my nikon d70, a 60mm nikkor micro and sometimes use of an sb600 flash, non-retirement status, lack of patience and fairly boring bugs, I manage these. Not in the same class by any means, but adequate for my enjoyment ;)
Posted 75 months ago.
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I'm definitely struggling for time. I have made note of some of the components of his rig and will be hunting them down to assemble my own. Here in New Zealand it's harder to come by a lot of the components that people treat as common in the UK and US... The blank looks I get from specialty photography stores when you talk about reversing lenses, the use of macro focusing plates/rails - unbelievable.
Posted 75 months ago.
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